Chapter 152: The Night of Revelry

About five minutes later, suddenly Leyao came out from the exit. I was stunned. Why was it Leyao instead of Weiran?

I looked at Mica in disbelief, but I was unwilling to accept this outcome because it was unreasonable.

Mica smiled and said, “She had been wearing a mask since she entered the mall. I guess she must have felt more suffocated than others.”

After she analyzed it like this, I could only accept my loss. It was my fault for trying to judge the result from an emotional perspective. Mica, on the other hand, judged from a physical perspective and therefore had the upper hand. So emotions are indeed the most unreliable.

Leyao came to my side. She took off her mask, gave me a slight smile, and then took a deep breath as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

Mica said to us consciously, “You two chat. I’ll go in first.”

“Okay.”

Mica reminded me again, “Remember to keep your promise!”

“Don’t worry. After all, I’m a man of my word,” I immediately replied, patting my chest.

Mica glanced at me, as if she didn’t believe my claim of being a man of my word, but she didn’t say anything else and walked toward the mall entrance.

Leyao asked me, “What did she mean by ‘keep your promise’?”

“It’s all your fault!”

Leyao looked puzzled, “How did it become my fault? Did you use me as a betting topic?”

“More or less. We were just betting on who would come out of the mall first. She listed you on her list, and it turned out to really be you who came out first, so I lost.”

“What happens if you lose?”

“Right now, I just want to talk about what happens if I win… If you hadn’t come out, she would have treated us to dinner tonight.” I complained, after all, it was a bet worth a thousand yuan, and I was almost broke.

“I thought it was nothing. I’ll treat you to dinner. After all, everyone is helping the bar, and they are helping me too.”

Leyao’s words made me pause. Subconsciously, I always thought she was in a worse situation than me, so I didn’t think of asking her to treat me to dinner. But the reality was: she was no longer the person she used to be, and handling such a small matter like having dinner was easy for her.

I didn’t insist on being polite with Leyao, because I was never a man who liked to pretend to be rich.

After finishing this topic, we just stood there in the cold wind, waiting for the next topic from each other.

“Zhaoyang, do you regret giving up your fiancée to come to Suzhou and help me?”

This was a topic I wasn’t mentally prepared for, making me somewhat unprepared. Still, I imagined what the situation would be like now if this hadn’t happened back then.

I believed at this moment I would definitely have already started preparing my engagement ceremony with Li Xiaoyun, continuing to strive for our career and family. Although we wouldn’t be rich, we would at least have a comfortable life.

I sighed softly in my heart, wondering how Li Xiaoyun was doing now. Was she still on the road of matchmaking, or had she already found someone to be with?

Leyao pursued the silent me again and asked, “Would you regret it?”

“Some things are just instinctive for me, so please don’t ask such a silly question.”

“Your meaning is: being good to me is your instinct?”

“Damn… It’s this nagging question again!” Just like before, I swore at her in annoyance.

But Leyao didn’t mind at all, giving me the same answer as before: “Go ahead and damn it…”

I stared at Leyao for a while before saying, “I’m never going to say ‘damn’ in front of you again!”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s an indecent word.”

Leyao gave me a wry expression and then said, “But you’re not a refined gentleman either!”

I looked at my reflection in the window, thinking I looked pretty refined, but that wasn’t important. Leyao had misunderstood my meaning. For us, the issue of saying ‘damn’ or not had already become a thing of the past. Since it was in the past, there was no need to bring it up again.

…

Leyao and I returned to the mall. At this time, CC and Rob were performing together, with Weiran responsible for piano accompaniment, while Mica stood in the crowd listening intently.

It wasn’t until I stood beside her that she noticed my arrival and asked, “Finished talking?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re a man of your word, right?”

“It’s just singing a cheerful and normal song. Come on, what do you want me to sing?”

Mica seemed well-prepared and said, “The Little Dragon Boy.”

“What?”

“The Little Dragon Boy. We all watched that TV series when we were kids.”

I frowned and said, “This song is cheerful, but do you think it’s normal?”

Mica argued reasonably, “If you think this song is not normal, you are denying your childhood!”

“Cut it out, okay… You’re just humiliating me. I can’t afford to lose face like this!”

“I know you like songs with depth and meaning, but everything in excess is bad. In fact, those seemingly childish songs are truly meaningful!”

“Pfft… Like ‘I have horns on my head and a tail behind me,’ is that meaningful?”

Mica looked displeased and replied, “If you can’t handle losing, don’t bet with me.”

I immediately tried to reason with Mica, “Who can’t handle losing? I just can’t remember the guitar chords for that song.”

“I’ll accompany you. If you can’t remember the lyrics, I can write them down for you.”

I felt wronged but couldn’t find any more arguments to refute. I couldn’t understand why this woman always found ways to embarrass me.

…

After Rob and CC finished their performance, Mica walked to the center of the stage and whispered something to CC. CC immediately laughed and nodded repeatedly.

“Zhaoyang, come up here. I and CC will accompany you. You have to perform well because this will be the finale of tonight’s concert.”

After Mica said this, even the audience looked expectant. After all, the previous performances were splendid thanks to everyone’s efforts, so this final song was sure to be the best of the best.

I silently walked onto the small stage and stood in front of the microphone, feeling inexplicably nervous and extremely uncomfortable. But the audience’s faces showed even more anticipation.

And Rob seemed to have received a message from Mica and sat back in front of the drum set with a serious expression, as if he was just showing off, like saying, “Come on and sing!”

The cheerful and lively music introduction had already begun to float around. I instinctively touched my nose, resisting inside, but still followed the rhythm of the music and started singing with a sense of professionalism: “I have horns on my head, I have a tail behind me, no one knows how many secrets I have… I’m a little green dragon, I have many little secrets…”

At first, the audience looked stunned, then burst into laughter, and naturally, I was the target of their laughter, after all, just now I sang a song of oil rock that they couldn’t understand, and now I sang this song…

While singing, I muttered in my heart: “You all show off your abilities, and I’m just the jester responsible for livening up the atmosphere… What kind of friends did I make!”

Because I was filled with negative emotions, my voice became smaller and smaller. Unexpectedly, Mica, who was playing the guitar, suddenly pushed me aside and started singing in a childish voice.

I was immediately stunned, captivated by her playful childish voice, and more certain that she wasn’t trying to embarrass me.

After Mica sang a section, she handed the microphone to CC, who also pinched her voice to sing in a childish tone. This sudden change caught the audience off guard, but after a while, applause broke out, and they even started singing along.

After CC finished singing, she took the microphone to Rob’s side. Rob improvised and added a very high-energy rap, making the atmosphere even more lively. Eventually, even Jianwei, Leyao, Fangyuan, and others came onto the small stage to sing together… Seeing this moment of celebration, I finally realized: the person who was most unable to let go on the entire stage was actually me!

I don’t know what will happen to us in the future, but at this moment, we indeed set aside all our prejudices and cooperated in singing this “childish” song with the most genuine emotions.

And I finally understood Mica’s good intentions. We, who were under the pressure of urban life, needed this kind of way to relieve stress. And those songs that seemed to have depth and meaning now appeared to be nothing more than pretentious whining.

…

As time passed, finally this extended version of the children’s song ended. Because Mica had been jumping around with the crowd, there were already some sweat marks on her forehead. She gently wiped off the sweat, took the microphone, and stood in the center of the stage. After a pause, she spoke sincerely: “Thank you all again for coming to this impromptu concert. The reason we finally chose this song as the closing piece is to let everyone feel the power of returning to simplicity… We all hope to live more easily, but reality has given us too many shackles. Although we can’t break free, we can use our own ways to relieve the pressure accumulated under the shackles… So, please be sure to pay attention to our ‘Fifth Season’ themed music bar. Here, you will definitely experience the simplicity and joy of returning to simplicity…”

Thunderous applause erupted from the audience. At this moment, I firmly believed that these claps were not related to Mica’s beauty, but were heartfelt praises from the audience, because Mica’s words had touched the most secret desires deep in their hearts.

Once again, she used her wisdom to infinitely amplify the effect of this concert. I believed this concert was the initial driving force for the bar to set sail.

But could such a woman, who combined wisdom, beauty, kindness, and wealth, really be real?

I seemed even less able to imagine the scene of her becoming my girlfriend, and even less dared to imagine that day…